Booking.com extends its lead to 93.3% as the citation pool tilts further away from Indian challengers.
Booking.com extends its lead to 93.3% as the citation pool tilts further away from Indian challengers. After yesterday's opening reading at 88%, Booking.com pushes another 5.3 points higher to 93.3% SoV — and now holds 100% SoV on Gemini, a clean sweep across all 50 prompts on that surface. MakeMyTrip (+4.0 pts to 72.7%) and ixigo (+4.7 to 48%) move with it but lose ground in relative terms; the Booking-vs-MakeMyTrip gap widens from 19.3 pp to 20.6 pp. The structural driver is the citation pool: ixigo.com jumps from 14 → 24 cites on ChatGPT, play.google.com app-store listings climb 36 → 46, and a fresh cluster of corporate-travel and review domains (navan.com, happay.com, rippling.com, coaxsoft.com, easemydeal.com) all newly cite Booking.com on Gemini. EaseMyTrip is the only meaningful rank story below the top three — it climbs from rank 9 to rank 6 on ChatGPT — but its overall SoV slips 1.3 pts.
The Daily Fixing
3 engines · live
Booking.com
86.0%
▲+2.0 pts
Booking.com
100.0%
▲+8.0 pts
Booking.com
94.0%
▲+6.0 pts
Timeline · 2 editions
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Previously on The CITE Index
1 prior chapter
- 19 May
Editor's note
20 May 2026 · 21:00 IST
Cite Solutions Research
Booking.com extends its lead to 93.3% as the citation pool tilts further away from Indian challengers.
The move
After yesterday's opening reading at 88%, Booking.com pushes another 5.3 points higher to 93.3% SoV — and now holds 100% SoV on Gemini, a clean sweep across all 50 prompts on that surface.
MakeMyTrip (+4.0 pts to 72.7%) and ixigo (+4.7 to 48%) move with it but lose ground in relative terms; the Booking-vs-MakeMyTrip gap widens from 19.3 pp to 20.6 pp.
The structural driver is the citation pool: ixigo.com jumps from 14 → 24 cites on ChatGPT, play.google.com app-store listings climb 36 → 46, and a fresh cluster of corporate-travel and review domains navan.comhappay.comrippling.comcoaxsoft.comeasemydeal.com all newly cite Booking.com on Gemini.
EaseMyTrip is the only meaningful rank story below the top three — it climbs from rank 9 to rank 6 on ChatGPT — but its overall SoV slips 1.3 pts.
What it means
Day two confirms what day one hinted at: this is a citation-pool problem, not a brand-awareness problem.
The Indian challengers own their direct-brand domains makemytrip.com is still the single most-cited source at 53 cites, but every third-party comparison list, app-store roundup, and corporate-travel review pulls the answer back toward Booking.com.
Gemini at 100% SoV is the cleanest illustration — when the engine reaches for B2B travel-management write-ups on navan.com or happay.com, there is no Indian challenger in the source set to surface.
For AEO teams at MakeMyTrip, ixigo and EaseMyTrip, the week's work is to land in the listicle corpus easemydeal.comhappyfares.intripzilla.instardrift.ai, not to push more brand-owned content. "Owning your homepage doesn't beat being in the third-party list — and Booking.com is winning the list."
What moved this — the receipts
5 cited
- BBooking.comGrowing citation
ChatGPT14 → 24 cites (+10) on ChatGPT — ixigo's own domain is now feeding the incumbent's answers.
iixigo.com· ixigo.com - BBooking.comGrowing citationAI Mode
36 → 46 cites (+10) on AI Mode — app-store pages are the single largest non-brand source driving Booking.com's +5.3 pt day.
pPlay Store app listings (ixigo and peers)· play.google.com MakeMyTrip
Growing citationAI Mode43 → 53 cites (+10) on AI Mode — MakeMyTrip's homepage scales with the category but the +4.0 pt gain trails Booking.com's +5.3.
mmakemytrip.com· makemytrip.com- BBooking.comGrowing citationAI Mode
9 → 14 cites (+5) on AI Mode — listicle of flight apps now a consistent Booking.com source.
hBest Flight Booking App India· happyfares.in EaseMyTrip
Rank flip
ChatGPTRank 9 → 6 on ChatGPT, the only positive rank flip in the set today; overall SoV still slips 1.3 pts.
eeasemytrip.com· easemytrip.com
Trajectory · top 5
2 days
Share of voice (%)
Brand position map
Rank × mentions · per engine
Top-left = high mentions, top rank. Bottom-right = high mentions but lower rank — coverage exists but the model isn't placing the brand first.
Engine divergence
Engine divergence
All three agree on #1All three engines name the same #1 brand today (Booking.com). When this happens, the brand is structurally winning across retrieval surfaces.
Today's metrics
Today's leader
BBooking.com
93.3% share of voice across all engines
Biggest mover
BBooking.com
+5.3% on the day
ChatGPT leader
BBooking.com
86% on ChatGPT only
Engine gaps
0
brands invisible on 1+ engines
Per-engine verdict
Booking.com
86% share of voice on this engine
Top 3 here
Booking.com
100% share of voice on this engine
Top 3 here
Booking.com
94% share of voice on this engine
Top 3 here
Full lineup
9 brands · 3 engines
Source pool
Hover for engine split
Sentiment composition
Engine fan-out queries
- No fan-out queries surfaced today.
- No fan-out queries surfaced today.
- No fan-out queries surfaced today.
Prompts run today
50 of 50 · full responses on the edition
- 01Best flight booking app India 2026
- 02Cheapest flight booking app India 2026
- 03Best app to book domestic flights India 2026
- 04Best app to book international flights India 2026
- 05Best flight booking with no convenience fee India 2026
- 06Best flight booking with cashback India 2026
- 07Best app for last-minute flights India 2026
- 08Best flight comparison app India 2026
- 09Best flight booking app for business travel India 2026
- 10Best app for student flight discounts India 2026
- 11Best hotel booking app India 2026
- 12Cheapest hotel booking app India 2026
- 13Best app for budget hotels India 2026
- 14Best app for premium hotels India 2026
- 15Best app for hotel deals India 2026
- 16Best app for honeymoon packages India 2026
- 17Best app for family trip hotels India 2026
- 18Best app for hill station hotels India 2026
- 19Best app for beach hotels India 2026
- 20Best app for last-minute hotel booking India 2026
- 21Best travel package India 2026
- 22Best honeymoon package India 2026
- 23Best Goa package India 2026
- 24Best Kerala package India 2026
- 25Best Kashmir package India 2026
- 26Best international vacation package India 2026
- 27Best Bali package India 2026
- 28Best Thailand package India 2026
- 29Best Maldives package India 2026
- 30Best Europe vacation package India 2026
- 31Best app to book train tickets India 2026
- 32Best app to book bus tickets India 2026
- 33Best app for IRCTC alternative India 2026
- 34Best app to check PNR status India 2026
- 35Best app for Tatkal booking India 2026
- 36Best app for bus India 2026
- 37Best app for cab booking India 2026
- 38Best app for car rental India 2026
- 39Best app for self-drive cars India 2026
- 40Best app for airport cab India 2026
- 41Top travel apps India 2026
- 42Best Indian travel website 2026
- 43Most trusted travel app India 2026
- 44Travel app market leader India 2026
- 45Best travel agency app India 2026
- 46Travel app rankings India 2026
- 47Best app for travel insurance India 2026
- 48Best app for visa application India 2026
- 49Travel app recommendation India 2026
- 50Best app overall travel India 2026